English 420Y - Business Writing Online

During the Employment Project, you will learn strategies for seeking and securing employment or an internship, with particular attention to the documents people normally use to represent themselves and their prospects to potential employers. This project asks you to work individually, but there will also be chances for you to work with your peers to exchange ideas and feedback in your blogs.

project prompt and summary

Locate a real and specific job or internship for which you are qualified and prepare the application materials for it. If you already have a good job, find one that would be an advance for you, then prepare application materials for that position. Step 1 of the project asks you to learn about and use various web-based resources for job seekers and ultimately to select one real job to pursue. Step 2 asks you to prepare the all-important cover letter (i.e., "Job Application Letter"). Step 3 asks you to prepare a print resume suitable for such a position. In Step 4, you will assess your experience in a "Project Assessment Document." In the process of completing each step, you will work closely with your peers and your instructor to shape your writing so that it represents you and your experience fully and effectively.

project goals

This project emphasizes several important goals that all professional writers should bear in mind and that are consistent with those of the Professional Writing Program at Purdue. In the Employment Project, you will learn to shape your writing for very specific situations and purposes:

Writing in Context
Analyze professional cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of workplace writing, such as persuasion, organizational communication, and public discourse, with an emphasis on

• writing for general audiences and decision makers

Writing Process
Develop and understand various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents that respond effectively and ethically to professional situations and audiences.

Research
Understand and use various research methods to produce professional documents

• analyzing professional contexts
• assessing and using information resources

• understanding and implementing various principles of format and layout
• interpreting and arguing with visual information.

deliverables

Step 1: Skills Inventory, Job Ad Analysis. Start this step by completing the Job Search Activity 12-1 (p. 221) in The Thomson Handbook. In a blog post, respond to each of the questions with a few sentences, or a list. Then, using the resources listed on page 222 of The Thomson Handbook ("Using Print, Campus and Internet Resources") and the course calendar, find a job ad and copy and paste it (or provide the link) in a blog post. In the same blog entry, write a one-paragraph description of the position in your own words (see the sample in The Thomson Handbook, p. 223-224), and a two-paragraph discussion of why you have chosen this position and why you believe you are qualified for it. Be sure to match your specific skills and experience with kew words from the job ad. Your skills inventory, job announcement, and job ad analysis should be posted to your blog by Friday, June 15, by midnight EST. See the Calendar for Week 2 for additional details.

Step 2: Print-Based Resume. Your printable resume (one page in length) should adapt features drawn from the samples presented online or available for review at the Online Writing Lab. It's critical that you shape your resume to the specific job or internship you have chosen to apply for (that it's suited to the context), so be sure to include only the relevant aspects of your professional experience. Your writing needs to be error-free, concise, and presented in an easily readable format. Draft due for peer review: Wednesday, June 20 , by midnight. Your resume draft should be posted to your blog as a PDF attachment to a blog message that explains the nature of the attachment and invites peer feedback. Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process. You should also review the principles, guidelines, and resume samples in The Thomson Handbook (Chapter 12, pages 226-232). Pay special attention to the Project Checklist "Evaluating Your Resume's Content" and "Evaluating Your Resume's Design" on pages 228-229. Ask yourself these questions as you prepare your final draft.

Step 3: Job Application Letter. The job application letter is critical to your efforts to secure a job, perhaps as critical as your resume itself. For Project 1, your letter should be no longer than one or two pages (one is preferable in most cases), following the suggestions and models discussed during class. You should submit the draft of your application letter to your blog for peer review by midnight on Monday, June 25. Your letter should be attached to a blog post that includes a cover note that follows guidelines for Eliciting Good Response and the PDF version of the letter. (Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process.) Review the sample in The Thomson Handbook, p 225. Your letter should be context-specific and should contain the required five parts (heading, greeting, opening, persuasion, closing) in the format shown.

Step 4: Project Assessment Document: As you near the end of your work on the Employment Project, prepare a two-page overview and analysis of your deliverables and the process you used to complete them. Your Project Assessment Document should answer most of the following questions, each of which is tied to the major goals of the assignment:

Writing in Context
How did the particular job you applied for affect how you wrote your letter? Did it change or affect how you presented yourself? How did applying for this position help you understand aspects of your experience you might need to develop more?

Process
What was the most challenging document to produce and why? Briefly describe and explain one of the significant revisions you made to this document after your initial draft.

Research
Which research resource proved to be the most beneficial for you? The least? Explain.

Collaboration
What was one way that peer feedback helped you improve your work? How did responding to the work of others help you improve your own work?

Project Management
How well did you plan your work on this project? What might you have done differently?

Document Design
What is the most effective aspect of your deliverables in terms of presentation or design? Have you deliberately adapted a standard form in an unusual or creative way? If so, why?

Your Project Assessment Document is due when you turn in your completed Employment Project on Thursday, June 28, by midnight. Your final submission will include the following items, in a single PDF file, in this order:

1. Job ad that you have replied to (Step 1)
2. Discussion of job ad (Step 1)
3. Job Application Letter
4. Resume
5. Project Assessment Document.

Attach this file to a blog post with the subject "Employment Project Final" and include brief submission notes explaining the nature of the attachment. The file should be in PDF format, and the file name should follow this naming convention:: lastname-EmploymentProject.pdf. Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process. Final Employment Project Due Thursday, June 28th.

grading

The Employment Project is worth 20% of your course grade. The breakdown for each of its components is as follows: Step 1: Skills Inventory and Job Ad Analysis (10%); Step 2: Print Resume (40%); Step 3: Job Application Letter (40%); Step 4: Project Assessment Document (10%).

grading criteria

When grading your project, your instructor will pay particular attention to see whether you have effectively adapted your documents to the job for which you have applied. Your writing will need to be precise, accurate, and well-suited to the context (the job/field) and to the rhetorical occasion (in terms of tone, style, and content). In this case, a generic, catch-all resume and cover letter will not satisfy the requirements of the project. Specifically, the following criteria will apply:

• All documents conform to the design principles established by the genre and course readings.
• Documents are catered to a specific job at a specific company, and reflect how the applicant would correspond with the company goals and environment.
• Resume is well formatted, includes all necessary components, and reflects knowledge of resume conventions.
• Resume job descriptions are concise, specific, catered to job ad keywords, and utilize parallel verbage.
• Cover letter is concise, specific, and professional. Cover letter builds on and adds to the information in the resume, reflecting job ad keywords to present the applicant comprehensively as a desirable addition to the company.
• Documents are professional and error free.
• Documents could function within a professional environment. If you could not send the resume and cover letter to the prospective employer and stand a good chance at getting an interview, the project will not receive an A.

revision

You will have opportunities to revise your work throughout the process and will be permitted to revise once again after receiving your grade on the project, subject to these restrictions: 1) you make substantial revisions (a few fixes alone are not enough to raise a grade); 2) you turn in your revised project within one week of the date that it was returned to you with a grade; 3) you include submission notes that specify precisely what you did to improve your work.